There are three known species of buckwheat: Common buckwheat (F. esculentum), tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum), and perennial buckwheat (Fagopyrum cymosum). Common buckwheat is also known as Fagopyrum sagigtatum, and a form of tartary buckwheat may be called Fagopyrum kashmiri-anum. The cytotaxonomy of buckwheat has not been thoroughly studied, but it is generally believed that perennial buckwheat, particularly the diploid type, is the ancestral form of both tartary buckwheat and common buckwheat.
Tartary buckwheat (also known as rye buckwheat, duck wheat, hull-less, broomless, India wheat, Marino, mountain, Siberian, wild goose, and Calcutta buckwheat) is cultivated in the Himalayan regions of India and China, in eastern Canada, and, occasionally, in mountain areas of the eastern United States. Tartary buckwheat is very frost-resistant. Its seeds - and products made from them - are greenish in color and somewhat bitter in taste. Buckwheat is used primarily as an animal feed or in a mixture of wheat and buckwheat flour. It can also be used as a source of rutin.
Common buckwheat is by far the most economically important species of buckwheat, accounting for over 90 percent of world production. Many types, strains, and cultivars of common buckwheat exist - late-maturing and early-maturing types, Japanese and European types, summer and autumn types. Within a given type there may be strains or varieties with tall or short plants, gray or black seeds, and white or pink flowers. In general, however, common buckwheat varieties from different parts of the world may be divided into two major groups. The first group includes tall, vigorous, late-maturing, photoperiod-sensitive varieties, found in Japan, Korea, southern China, Nepal, and India. Members of the second group are generally insensitive to photoperiod and are small and early-maturing. All of the varieties in Europe and northern China belong to this second group.
Prior to 1950, most producers of buckwheat planted unnamed strains that had been harvested from their own fields or obtained from their neighbors or local stores. Named varieties, developed through plant breeding, were first made available in the 1950s. Tokyo’, the oldest of the named cultivars introduced into North America, was licensed in 1955 by the Agriculture Canada Research Station in Ottawa. Other cultivars licensed for production in Canada are Tempest,‘Mancan, and ‘Manor’, all developed at the Agriculture Canada Research Station in Morden, Manitoba, since 1965. ‘Mancan’, which has large, dark-brown seeds, thick stems, and large leaves, is the Canadian cultivar preferred in the Japanese market because of its large seeds, desirable flavor and color, and high yield of groats in the milling process.
Cultivars licensed in the United States are Penn-quad’ (released by the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experimental Station and the U. S. Department of Agriculture [USDA] in 1968) and ‘Giant American’ (a Japanese-type cultivar, apparently developed by a Minnesota farmer). Cultivars developed in the countries of the former Soviet Union since the 1950s include ‘Victoria’, ‘Galleya’, Eneida’, Podolyaka’, ‘Diadema’, ‘Aelita’, and ‘Aestoria’. Representative cultivars from other areas of the world include the following: Pulawska’, Emka’, and ‘Hruszowska’ from Poland; ‘Bednja 4n’ from Yugoslavia; and ‘Botan-Soba’,‘Shinano No. 1’, ‘Kyushu-Akisoba Shinshu’, and ‘Miyazaki Oosoba’ from Japan.
Different from those of common buckwheat. They have only one flower type and are self-fertile. In addition, they tend to be more husky and more branched and to have narrower, arrow-shaped leaves and smaller, greenish-white flowers. Attempts to transfer the self-compatibility of tartary buckwheat to common buckwheat have proved unsuccessful.
The buckwheat kernel is a triangular, dry fruit (achene), 4 to 9 millimeters (mm) in length, consisting of a hull or pericarp, spermoderm, endosperm, and embryo. Large seeds tend to be concave-sided and small seeds are usually convex-sided. The hull may be glossy, gray, brown, or black and may be solid or mottled. It may be either smooth or rough with lateral furrows. The hulls represent 17 to 26 percent (in tartary buckwheat, 30 to 35 percent) of the kernel weight. Diploid varieties usually have less hull than tetraploids.
World History
